Ruengoethe

Knot

The Knot is alternatively the soul, ego, sentience, or personality of a living creature. It is also what binds a creature to the Loom, and is what gives living beings the ability to access that network to use the tuning arts. Each knot possesses a distinct number of strings, sometimes called heartstrings, and from the knot there extend smaller filaments to the greater expanse of the Loom, connecting Knots to the other Knots of living things.

In most sentient creatures, there are seven heartstrings, each of a “color” perceivable by those trained in tuning. There have been some individual observances of great apes, dolphins, and certain birds as possessing seven strings as well. As one goes down the ladder of the animal kingdom, creatures have fewer and fewer heartstrings, until one reaches plants, which rather have small bundles of filaments (with the exception of amaranthine woods).